2011, Pococke Press,                                                                                                             336 pages

Editor: Rachel Finnegan

This is an edition of the previously unpublished Grand Tour correspondence of Richard Pococke (later Bishop of Ossory) and his cousin Jeremiah Milles (later Dean of Exeter) who, together in 1734 & 1736 embarked on two tours of the Continent, with Pococke famously continuing his travels to the East (1737-41). Their travels are recorded in an extensive collection of letters (from Pococke to his mother and from both cousins to their uncle, Thomas Milles, Bishop of Waterford & Lismore) and a collection of travel journals.

Volume 1 reproduces the edited Grand Tour letters from the first voyage of France & Italy (1733-34) and contains biographies not only of the two correspondents, but also of the recipients of their letters - Mrs Elizabeth Pococke, who lived in Newtown, Hampshire, and Bishop Milles, who resided in the Bishop's Palace, Waterford. It also reconstructs the deleted passages from the Pococke letters, which give a fascinating insight into the author's financial problems, including his dealings with his banker, John Bagwell of Clonmel, and instructions to his mother regarding the purchase of his wigs and the management of his wardrobe. Such details, together with his his keen and at times uncharitable observations on human nature, offer the reader an alternative view of a man once described by Mary Delany as "the dullest man that ever travelled."